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Affordable Housing Policies for Essential Service Workers in the Bakken Region

Advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the Bakken region of North Dakota generated numerous jobs attracting people from all over the United States. This rapid influx of people within a relatively short period of time led to dramatic increase in demand for essential services, including education, law enforcement, health care, and municipal and county services. When the boom began in North Dakota, any type of available housing was secured by the oil industry as workforce housing. Consequently, housing for essential service workers (such as teachers, law enforcement personnel, medical professionals, etc.) was needed in the region to meet the needs of a rapidly increasing population and became a major challenge. Essential services sectors in North Dakota adopted a variety of housing options to address the need for employee housing. These include the use of mobile/trailer homes, the purchasing of homes when they become available in the community, and construction of new multi-family homes. This webinar will present study results that compared the housing conditions for essential service workers in three oil-impacted communities in North Dakota (Belfield, Ray and Watford City) and three periphery communities in South Dakota (Belle Fouche, Lemmon and Buffalo), to understand the housing challenges presented by the boom and to examine the suitability of affordable housing mechanisms used in other regions.